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Microsoft Giving Xbox Live Users a Free Game
Earlier this week we covered the Xbox Live outages over the holidays. Several users have pointed out that Microsoft has acknowledged its lack of performance, and is now offering a free game to compensate its users. Unfortunately for Microsoft, disgruntled patrons have already filed a class action lawsuit over the recent difficulties. Quoting the PC World article:
"Xbox Live general manager Marc Whitten said that the problems with Xbox Live downtime were caused by an influx of new users who had gotten an Xbox 360 over the holidays. It's been a record-setting season for Xbox Live. 'This included our largest sign-up of new members to Xbox LIVE in our 5 year history and just yesterday you broke the record for the single biggest day of concurrent members ever on the service,' said Whitten."
Okay - I realise it's annoying when a service doesn't work, but only a little bit. Considering every single user of the service likes to play games, a free game seems a perfectly good level of compensation.
Given the results of the class action law suit against Sony, due to the unlawful/undisclosed root-kitting of consumers' computers, I can imagine that the free game, already offered by Microsoft, is probably going to exceed any class action payout. Unless, of course, you happen to be a lawyer.
In which case it's probably a worth-while pursuit.
I aren't a member of X-Box Live though, so your level of frustration may make it worth the time, though if you were frustrated by poor service over the holidays I can't imagine that a law suit will be any less frustrating...
...then why is it still happening, now?
I don't know if it's lawsuit-worthy, but the notion that they were unprepared for an influx of new users during the holiday season is pretty much inexcusable. Besides, let's say they make the free game available tonight; we still can't sign in our profiles to get it.
Microsoft really just had to maintain its velocity in order to handily beat the PS3. Screw-ups like this are going to send their potential customer base over to their rivals in droves. Granted, the online experience on the PS3 and Wii is fairly primitive compared to XBL, but there haven't been any of these sensationalist reports to indicate that they don't work.
Blech.
Maybe now people will see why having all your online PC games tied to a MS Live service is a terrible idea.
There is no -1 Disagree mod. Slashdot.org/faq defines mod options. USE IT.
Network services was (probably) ingnored as "crying wolf".
Then over the course of one day all of the shiny paper comes off and then fingers are pointed at network services.
I have seen too many instances of one division ignoring another until a scapegoat is needed.
With all that influx of cash, couldn't you divert some of it to funding, you know, new servers and stuff like that?
The disgruntled patrons didn't do a damn thing except maybe stop playing the game for a minute. The lawyers are the ones who did it, because they make money from class action law suits. We need class action lawsuits to keep companies honest, but we sure as hell don't need them to be done the way they are. Can you imagine, a lawsuit where you have to opt-out in order not to sue a company? Talk about spam...
Remember that only a portion of XBoxes sold will ever show up on XB Live - I own an XBox 360, and I've never once connected it to the net. Hence, Microsoft has to make a guess at what portion of sold XBoxes will wind up on the net, and apparently guessed wrong. (I.e. The net supports 100,000, and we sell 200,000 but only about 1 in 2 ever gets onto the net, so we're good) Still really dumb, but a far cry from the picture of them malevolently planning network outages that you paint.
Games like Frogger have extraordinary longevity and appeal. Talk to anyone who has sponsored a computer museum or video game expo. Its the "cheap and nasty" classics that draw the crowds.
1. microsoft is apparently doing something about it on their own EVEN THOUGH SOME DOUCHE is trying to get free money from them because their game didn't work for a couple days. Waah waah waah.
It was not a couple days, it was a couple weeks. A couple days it's fine, some people may have gotten an XBOX for XMas, as far as they knew, that's how it was always going to be...
2. you accept an agreement that says if the service doesn't work all the time, you give up responsibility.
XBOX 360 users have no choice but to accept the agreement, there's no other way for them to play online.
3. Xbox live is one of the few services that actually has a customer service line. IN THE US. Your dell, dude, doesn't even have that.
The issue is not customer service, it's reliability... having "Steve" read lines off a script with a fake Boston accent won't bring the servers back online.
4. go outside and play.
But... but... I just spent hundreds of dollars on this shiny games console.... besides, it's cold and I lost my legs on a bizarre cooking accident.
5. They don't have to do a DAMN thing about it and most people would still accept it.
Actually they do, a good chunck of their users pay monthly fees, also, their LIVE service is going to be added for Windows as well, where they have to compete aganist services like Steam.
6. Lemme guess, if Google had a game console, it would always work perfectly.
The best thing about Google: You can always go somewhere else, which is why it's always up.
7. Did you notice that nintendo shipped thousands of wiis with faulty video cards? I have one, it sucks, i'm sending it back, but thems the breaks. Are you telling me that you have never bought a new complex electronic item and had it not work properly and had to replace it? is that unique to microsoft?
This is so off the mark... but ok: If you purchase a faulty item, you can take it back to the shop and get another one. XBOX Live is the only way for XBOX users to get online.
8. I think that it's obvious that they realize that they need to serve their customers to keep them, and that xbox and live are a big part of that. if it wasn't they wouldn't even bother.
That's the thing isn't it... just imagine what kind of service you'd get if they weren't trying hard... now, some people purchase DRM'ed music, and depend on Microsoft's servers to license their tracks, or when using Windows Update, a false positive could cause Windows Vista to cripple your PC.... I think it's not a bad idea to be ready to snap at Microsoft the second they screw up, because if you don't, then they'll screw up a lot more often.
It's a great thing that it's free. Not sure why people would want to pay for online and add another $250 to their total cost of gaming over the life of their console.
With all that influx of cash, couldn't you divert some of it to funding, you know, new servers and stuff like that?
Over the space of a couple of weeks?"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
Unfortunately money can't be turned directly into servers. They need to be built and delivered, and have software loaded and configured. Give it a few weeks.
At a guess, they might even need so many new servers that they need to hire or buy a new location and have it rigged with power and internet. That could take months.
Because I'm typing this on a legal XP box that has never failed on me in the 3 years I've owned and upgraded it.
Because this is the first time I've ever experienced this on XBLive and I've been playing since Halo 2 was released.
My Xbox red-ringed last year. Without a penny paid they shipped me a box in 2 days, and I had a working Xbox in 5 business days. Did it suck? Yep, but they took care of it as they will (and are) this. If people really needed the entertainment THAT BAD then they should have maybe played a card game with their parents. This lawsuit is dumb.
Yeah! Enrich some more lawyers who, in a more sane society with fewer whiny bitches, would be sweeping streets. Instead, they find enough rubes to sign up for a class action suit. The company gets a tiny slap. The rubes get a $1 coupon. The lawyers get to snort coke off hooker's breasts in the back seat of their 7-series. That solves what, exactly? It's a scam created by the legal industry and enabled by their buddy lawyers in government.
Can we maybe start reserving the whole class action thing for, oh, I dunno, toxic waste dumping, or something like that?
and I thought the people that spent there lives playing games were sad! you make them look like they spend there time productively.
Honestly, the author took this posting over at the official xbox site, and then snipped together almost every single sentence with 'Whitten said'. Although, to be fair, I think about 15% of the middle of the article has some original thought. (The part where they explain what xbox live is). Of course, they could've just linked to the pages describing membership, instead.
The author then failed to cite the original article. What a piece of journalistic crap. PCWorld, MacWorld and Peter Cohen should be absolutely ashamed of themselves for writing and publishing this drivel.
I currently have no clever signature witicism to add here.